Thursday, August 12, 2010

NEARDENTAL INTERBRED WITH US

After a titanic task carried out in the laboratories of the Department of Evolutionary Genetics at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Svaante Paavo and his team lifted the first genomic outline (A draft sequence of the Neandertal genome. Science. May 2010), of the Neardental -a human that died 30,000 years ago. Most of the studied DNA came from bony powder of 3 Neardental women that lived in a cave of Vindija (Croatia), 38,000 years ago. I) The Neandertal genome is but related with not African modern human, suggesting certain contribution of Neandertal DNA to current non African genomes. The genetic sequence of more than a billion DNA fragments taken of several Neandertal bones found in Croatia, Russia, Spain and Germany estimate showed that 1-4% of the DNA of many current humans traces their origins to the Neandertal. It seems that Neandertales mixed with early modern human before the spread of the Homo sapiens for Europe and Asia. Archaeological remains of the Middle East has showed that Neandertales and human modern cohabited closely (100 000-50,000 years), before human population was dispersed for Asia.

II) Although Neandertals are related with most non African human (Europeans, Asians and melanesics) not finding Neardental bony remains in Asia suggests preference for modern human forms because certain modern genes (cognitive functions, metabolism, cranial features,etc), provided advantages. III) the genome of species that died but of 10 000 years ago can be subjected to chemical changes. Sometimes but of 95% of studied DNA corresponds to bacterial samples that colonized Neandertales after its deaths. Human DNA that enters in the excavation or in the laboratory also put danger in the results. Päabo employed new techniques to eliminate the contamination of the DNA (ultra clean rooms) and marked fragments of DNA with synthetic pieces of DNA to distinguish it from modern human DNA introduced aacidentally in the lab.